August 1, 2010

• Hey, here I am!

  Over here on my blog.  I know – I have all but abandoned this thing, but it wasn’t intentional.  Well, not forever. 

   

  Life gets complicated, you know?  First, I did break two metatarsal bones in my left foot on that vacation on Cape Hatteras. Then, before that was healed, I got a doozy of a case of cellulitis in both feet both the worst was, of course, that left foot. I have been claying like a mad thing, and then before I knew it, summer was here properly and the pool beckons.  So let me just jump right in with the clay thing and show a bit of what has come from the work of my hands!

  

   

  This mosaic represents a few of my most recent things – a set of snowflake beads as part of my stock looking toward the holidays, as are the two pins in the next frame, and a flip-flop pendant and beads for Tiana, our flip-flop girl.  In the bottom row are two shots of a pretty new box I am still tweaking (you can probably see the lid isn’t just right so I marbled gold and pearl clays for a bottom layer to the lid) and finally, an octopus who is the top of a mobile of fish and kelp – photos of similar items are in the next few pieces:

  

   

  Amy had asked me to make a light-switch cover for the boys’ room.  After I got going on the fish canes, these theme kind of took me over for a bit.  I made a couple of 5×7 pictures on canvas board to hang in their room, too:

   

  

  But the prime piece, is by far (in my unbiased opinion, this next, a 9×12 picture which is my entry into the August Challenge of the PCAGOE, “Inks, paints, foils & leaf.”  I have managed to use some of each, although we were only required to use one, and I have to be a bit loose on interpreting the theme to say I got all four.

  

  I “painted” the background canvas with alcohol inks which is how I got the lovely mottled color.  I tinted translucent clay for several different elements, most notably the giant kelp.  The gold coins are gold clay covered with imitation gold leaf, and I used copper foil tape to edge the canvas, which finishes the piece off nicely, don’t you think?  Each of the fish are from individual canes – three of them – that I then manipulated to different sizes and even various shapes, if you’ll refer back to the other photos using them.  All in all, these were a lot of fun, if time consuming.  I should also point out that the piece is very dimensional.  Most elements stick out a good 1/8″ (the fish) at a minimum, and the kelp is upwards of 5/8″ in places, as is my octopus buddy.  The pink “bush” is a kind of coral I found looking for octopus photos.  I just had to try my hand at that, and the gold and green seaweed in the background are embossed on with embossing powders and a heat gun.  Having so many fun things to bring to one creation is a blast.   

  So, you know the drill – VOTE – starting today, through the rest of this week and choose your top three favorites. All of you non-member voters are eligible to win one of several lovely pieces made by the members of the PCAGOE, as shown in the link.  (I’ve now inserted the link to vote three times – no excuses!)

  And I’ll finish off with these candlesticks I did this past week, too.  I love them.  I hope you do too – I’m headed off to list them in my etsy shop, when I finish up here.  Oh, and my 9×12 picture is listed for sale, too. 

  

  Feels good to be back in the saddle!  I’ll try not to be such a stranger. 

  me<><

   

  • 7:21 am
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